31 Responses to “BYOB: About Anything But The Oscars”

Okay then…why not shut The Hot Blog down? It’s more than half abandoned at this point, there are only a few of us that still post anything here, you didn’t even link your post-Oscar column here so I had to stumble into it over at Movie City News, you don’t write so much nowadays as imbed videos anyways, so what’s the point of having The Hot Blog? You do more writing on your Twitter feed.

How about a BYOB “vote on the future of this blog/say goodbye to this blog”? Not that any of us can vote you back into writing like you used to at the Hot Button site, but at least you’ll get some kind of consensus.

i hate seeing people post something and twist in the wind all by themselves so i’ll add:

i think it’s a given by now that DP has lost interest in this ‘format’ and it seems like that ship has sailed, but i guess for selfish reasons i’d hate to see the hotblog just shut up shop because it’s the general movie blog i read/comment on and the thought of trying to acclimate to the other movie blogs freaks me out, i guess it’s like an old shoe for better or worse…

DP if you read this, have you ever considered ordaining an ‘assistant’ to just post interesting/provocative subjects from the current movieshere, giving people who come here something to talk about? i guess that sounds kind of tinpot and it’s a departure from the current format, but at least it would keep the blog alive and give your little family of misfits somewhere to discuss stuff (and hopefully attract a wider range of commenters again), and you could then post your points of interest as you see fit… just a thought anyway

Leah: Why don’t you and I tag team as assistants? In addition to keeping the conversation going, we could generate some erotic tension in our spirited give and take. And since there’s an entire ocean separating us, you’d never have to worry about me actually, you know, showing up at your front door.

What are the odds that the sex scene I just saw in “300 Part 2″ is more erotic than anything from NYMPHOMANIAC?

Actually, that sylized/animated scene is more memorable than anything from PEABODY & SHERMAN, sadly. Dreamworks has morphed from a slightly worse/more conventional Pixar to a slightly better/less conventional Blue Sky. Actually, this is tracking below Blue Sky’s last eminently forgettable effort, EPIC, and will undoubtedly be crushed by RIO 2.

Yeah, I also chuckled at that – nothing but obsessive Oscar coverage for months and months, then post a big “non-Oscar talk BYOB” like 2 days after the Oscars? Haha. WTF? There was barely anywhere to discuss them in the first place – like 10 comments after that coffee post.

I’ve never watched a DP/30 and don’t see how the stuff he writes for twitter is 1/100th as interesting or fun to read as some of those long-form columns he used to do about this or that, or even his actual movie reviews, but to each his own. I’ve been winding down coming here and I imagine I’ll stop entirely soon but I’ll always follow Dave whatever he’s up to to some extent.

Random aside: NOAH’S ARK is an iconic and cool-sounding title for a movie. The title NOAH is super boring, could be an Alexander Payne character piece about an accountant from Stamford.

I’ve occasionally followed Dave’s Twitter feed and it’s not particularly geared to an outside audience, anyway. Half of it are references to things only industry and media insiders have a clue about, and the other stuff is so short that it carries no punch. Twitter just doesn’t work as a media tool other than to tweet out quick newsbites.

“Random aside: NOAH’S ARK is an iconic and cool-sounding title for a movie. The title NOAH is super boring, could be an Alexander Payne character piece about an accountant from Stamford.”

The title NOAH sounds like something I’d see on a DVD in the 99 cent bin at a BigLots or slumping over on a shelf at Goodwill. NOAH’s ARK is a better title, THE ARK is a better title, AFTER ME THE DELUGE is a better title. Is there a latin phrase anything like “Reductio ad (meaninglessness)”?

“Let’s not forget that MCN is the best curated film website out there, with the widest range of topics/links. No one is forcing any of you to be here.”

Well to your first point, no one here is criticising or even discussing MCN. There was no need for you to defend it in this instance.

To your second point, you missed my point. Those of us, the few remaining of us, who come here to discuss and debate and engage with what David blogs are loyal and regular visitors; and we’re increasingly frustrated by what seems to have become now the shadow of a husk of what the blog used to be when it captured us.

And like Breedlove and I have noted, it’s a bit irksome to come here after one of the biggest talking point events in movies and get “BYOB: About Anything But The Oscars” from a guy who couldn’t stop micro-vivisecting everything about the Oscars for the last five months. And then he goes and puts up a post-Oscars piece on MCN without nary a mention or reposting of it here.

This blog is David’s blog, and it’s his to do with whatever he feels like doing with it. But as current attendance levels seem to show, he’s blogging to attrition.

“It’s asking a bit much of a children’s film to go head to head on that level, don’t you think?”

Hahaha, I was thinking more on the lines of “Dragon’s” flying scenes, Panda’s fighting scenes or “Madagascar’s” wig buffoonery, but at this point, maybe that’s the direction to go in;)

So much good stuff in the next month that I haven’t had the chance to see…”Budapest Hotel,” “Under the Skin,” “Enemy,” “Nymphomaniac,” “Bad Words,” “The Raid: 2″ and that doesn’t count stuff like “Muppets,” “Divergent” and “Noah.” Usually late August/early September is like this….a ton of stuff that studios figure isn’t quite Oscar-worthy, but that I end of liking better much of the time. It’s like Christmas coming twice this year.

“Budapest Hotel” should have no trouble doing $100,000+ per-screen this weekend in “limited release.”
Not sure whether its final domestic cume will be in the “Tenenbaums”/”Moonrise” ballpark or closer to a typical Wes ($20-million and change).
I’d love for “Hotel” to gross a billion dollars worldwide, but we all know that ain’t gonna happen.
Sigh.

Yeah the marketing is over the top… “Muppets” seems like it has a pretty low ceiling….$100 million domestic, $200 million worldwide seems like the high point, and that’s if they knock it out of the park again critically since Muppets fans I would think are more inclined to read reviews after stuff like “Muppets in Space.”

Can never tell with Wes Anderson re: grosses. $25 million seems a given, but he’s never had a March release so who knows? Summer worked out well.

ha joe (i wasn’t hinting for the ‘assistant’ role or anything fwiw, just general spitballing – i’m like a jamaican from that ‘in living color’ skit with five jobs at the moment), but we’d probably do a pretty kickass blog i imagine, not that i know the first thing about doing a blog

You’re forgetting “Bottle Rocket,” Et.
That was a March release 18 years ago.
Of course, that was before Wes Anderson became “Wes Anderson” and developed a fervent fan base through home video.
Sony did such a piss poor job of “releasing” “BR” you’d swear they didn’t want anybody to see it.
Opening (pretty much) the same day as “Fargo” didn’t help matters.

Oh my, the article on the front page attacking the racists who said Annie can’t be black links to one of their own articles arguing that Justin Timberlake is too young to be Daddy Warbucks. How ageist! Then the writer goes on to say “doesn’t Daddy Warbucks have a big bald head?”

I’m just wondering what this’ll do to all those girls who were forced over the years to wear the fright wig after being told that without the wig no one will know you’re Annie.

And if you don’t have curly red hair then you’re a nameless disposable background character.

It brings to mind a kerfuffle in the Batman letters column many years back when someone complained that no two artists drew Wayne Manor the same way. I believe it was comics great Howard Chaykin who replied “Wayne Manor? How about Bruce Wayne? Nobody draws him the same, either.” And yet all the artists still stuck within certain parameters; no one ever said “Screw it, this month I’m making him Asian.”

“Tarkovsky was sitting in the corner of the screening room watching the film with me, but he got up as soon as the film was over and looked at me with a shy smile. I said to him, ‘It’s very good. It’s a frightening movie.’ He seemed embarrassed but smiled happily. Then the two of us went to a film union restaurant and toasted with vodka. Tarkovsky, who does not usually drink, got completely drunk and cut off the speakers at the restaurant, then began singing the theme of Seven Samurai at the top of his voice. I joined in, eager to keep up. At that moment, I was very happy to be on Earth.”
~ Akira Kurosawa On Watching Solaris With Andrei Tarkovsky

“Women’s power is too potent to waste on selfies… Truly dangerous women aren’t looking for dates or husbands, and they do not travel in packs. They rarely have many female friends. Their register is either universal, or intensely personal. They play mind games and make promises. Whether they deliver or not remains a secret, and secrets are essential to seduction. The Web has eroded every notion of privacy and stolen the real power of women: the threat of mystery itself. “I can see you’re trouble” was once the biggest compliment a man could pay a woman. There was going to be a dark spiral into the whirlpool of sex; there were going to be tears on both sides, secrets and regrets, scandal. Today, everyone is trouble.”
~ Joan Juliet Buck in “W”